Despite my previous complaints about Xbox Live Arcade it does have some games that are fun to play. Heavy Weapon is one of these games. My review of Heavy Weapon is going to be pretty short and simple. The more people playing the more fun the game is. I tried out the demo by myself and it was ok, but not so fun that I was going to buy it. A couple days later I had a friend over who likes gaming, but is not that good at the games I’m currently playing (Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas). I remembered that Heavy Weapon had co-op support and thought he might like it. So, we started playing and had a blast.

The next day I was playing online with three random players trying to get the Achievement for staying a live 15 minutes. With 4 of us playing it was not too hard. We did learn an important lesson. Always save at least a nuke so that if there is only one guy left alive he can use them while the other people re-spawn. The game only ends if all 4 people die at the same time. So, by saving a couple nukes, if three people go out the last person should be able to stay alive long enough to get everyone back alive. It can greatly increase the how long one can make in a survival type game. I had a lot of fun playing with three random players in survival mode.

The controls are simple and the end bosses are reminiscent of the side shooters I played as a kid. I give the game one thumb up playing it alone, but two thumbs up playing with two or more people.

Normally I’m not one to read the NY Times. I generally get my daily news from sites like Digg, Engadget, and Joystiq. Yet, when I saw an article titled “Viewers Fast-Forwarding Past Ads? Not Always” it caught my eye. My friends can tell you that I am a TiVo Whore. I’ve been using it long enough now that I would rather not watch TV than have to watch it with commercials. The SuperBowl is my one exception to that and if you read my previous post you already know my thoughts on that.

According to a survey by Nielsen, DVR owners watch 40 percent of commercials that they could skip over. Are these people crazy? I can understand watching sporting events live. Personally, I prefer to let them start recording for 20 or 30 minutes and then start watching the game so I can fast forward through commercials, but there are cases where watching the game live is better. Other than sporting events, I don’t see any reason to watch normal TV live. Maybe someone can tell me another reason, but I just can’t think of one that explains why 4 out of 10 people who could be fast forwarding commercials are not.

As I think about it now I wonder if there polling methods were flawed. I know half a dozen other people who have a TiVo or DVR from their cable company. None of them watch commercials. Most of them only watch a few TV shows and all of those they record and watch at a later date. The sports fans all let the game start recording and then start watching a bit later. None of them watch commercials. None of them were surveyed for this research either.

Assuming their statistics are correct who are these people who are watching commercials instead of fast forwarding through them? I have finally thought of one reason why people might not be fast forwarding through commercials. They don’t know how. Maybe these people signed up for digital cable to go with their new HDTVs they got for Christmas/SuperBowl and it came with a built in DVR. These are probably the same people who do not know how to set the time on their VCRs. They have the new electronic toys to keep up with their neighbors, but don’t take the time to learn how they actually work. I’m thinking I could make a lot of money starting a class that teaches them how to use their remote controls. So, if you know anyone who watches commercials instead of fast forwarding through them please shoot me an email or leave me a comment so I can get in touch with them about my new class: How To Use A Remote 101.

I joined the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers shortly after starting this site. I found out today I won an award for my posts.

The next award is one of my favourites: Best Writer of Rants and/or Reviews. In order to win this award, the writer has to be adept at balancing the fiery and articulate sides of blogging, and nobody did this better than the winner of this award: Jigsaw hc of Jigsaw hc’s Rants and Reviews! His posts “Top 3 Problems with Xbox Live Arcade” and “GameFly.com vs GameznFlix.com” both juggle constructive advice with a little healthy ranting. Watch that blood pressure, though!

My thanks to James Newton for the award and for forming the Carnival.

Since I’m on vacation (if you can count visiting family and working remotely as a vacation) I thought I’d look around the internet for reviews on HDTVs that fit my price range and my living room. Apparently, finding good HDTV reviews is not an easy task.

I like what Robert Heron puts together over at PC Magazine/DL.tv, but the PC Mag review site is such a pain to navigate. As far as I can tell there is no easy way to have it show you all of the 42 inch HDTVs that are under $2000. I can get the under $2000 or the 40” to 50” TV range, but not both. Also, the reviews don’t all cover standard set of information. Some of them use a 1 to 5 scale for different attributes and others just list if that attribute is good or not. Cnet’s review section has the same issues as PC Magazines. Over at the AFS Forums, the members will give you great advice, but it helps if you have a specific TV model in mind already.

What I would really like is a site that reviews HDTVs and lists out their features and specs in a chart that can be used to compare multiple TV models. I realize some of the things like picture quality are subjective, but if you have 2 or 3 people review the same TV and work together on the review then you should be able to get a decent idea of how the TV looks. Then, list out the review in a chart telling me how well each TV looks, what inputs is has, what other features it has, etc. Sure part of a TV’s quality it is based on my eyes and how it will look in my living room, but if a site would review HDTVs in a way that each TV is put on the same scale it would really help consumers find the one that is right for them. It would save me tons of time going to stores and looking at each TV. Then going home and looking up reviews for it online. Then repeating that process about 20 times until I find the one that fits my budget and looks the best.

If anyone knows of any really good HDTV review sites please let me know.

The wife and I flew to visit our families for a few weeks with our two month old son, and I’ve got to say that I’d recommend always flying with a baby or child. This is assuming you’re a good parent/guardian and you have a kid that doesn’t generally cry too much. There are quite a few benefits to flying with a child. Here are my top three.

#1: Early Boarding
You get to board early so you are pretty much guaranteed to get room in the overhead storage bin. Plenty of times that overhead area gets full on longer flights. It seems like such a little thing but when you have your normal carry-on bag plus a diaper bag it is nice to not have to cram them all under the seat. Additionally, since no one else is on the plane you don’t have to worry about bumping into anyone or trying to squeeze over people to get to your seat.

#2: People are Nicer
Second, people are much nicer when you have a baby. The airline personnel stop to look at the baby and you can ask for extra snacks or better seats. Not only are the airline personnel especially helpful, but the TSA people at the security checkpoint are helpful in getting stuff back together while you put your shoes back on. Also, they don’t even bother to look at your baggie of liquids to make sure they are all under 3 ounces since they figure they are all for the baby. Also, other passengers are extra helpful as well. We had people offer to take us into the Admirals’ Club so we could wait in there as their guest. Many others stopped to look at the baby and see if we needed anything. Sure these are all minor things, but they add up and make flying a lot easier.

#3: Kids are Fun
Finally, kids are fun on an airplane. Most children are amazed by the idea of flying. As long as you are careful to give them something to chew so their ears do not start hurting flying can be one of the greatest adventures in a kid’s life. Children are still innocent and curious. To them flying is reserved for super heroes in cartoons and movies. They don’t have the understanding of how an airplane works so flying is amazing feat. Watching a kid’s face during take off and landing is hilarious. To see their eyes as they realize they are airborne and then again as they come in for a landing is great. There is an excitement there that fades in adulthood when things like jobs, bills, and responsibilities fill ones thoughts. Take advantage of the time flying to see the innocence of childhood.

So, if you have the option to leave your kid behind or take them when you fly I would recommend taking them. The benefits are well worth the extra luggage and travel costs.

I’ve been thinking of getting an HDTV. I’m hoping after I pay some bills that I will be able to get one with my tax return this year (fingers crossed). Once I actually figure out which TV I want I have to figure out how I’m going to get HD content on my TV. My 360 is HD already so that will be cool. I’ll probably end up getting the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive for HD movies at some point.

That just leaves my HD TV content. This is where I have a real dilemma. I’m a TiVo addict. I just can’t watch TV without the ability to fast forward through commercials anymore. So, that gives me only a few options for my HD TV content. I could send like $800 bucks on a TiVo Series 3 that does HD. The cost is really, really high, but at least it is the TiVo interface I know and love.

I could go with a Windows Media Center system but it will probably not be much cheaper, and right now there are a very limited number of these that actually have CableCard support.

The problem with both of these options is that after buying the TiVo or Media Center box I still have to pay for digital cable. So not only is there a large up from cost there is also the monthly cable bill.

I could go with the HD-DVR from my cable company, Cox, for a few bucks a month. There would not be a large up front investment this way, but from what I hear their DVRs are not that great. They get the job done similar to how a Geo Metro will get you where you going; you get there but there is no style. Whereas, the TiVo Series 3 would be like a ride in a Camero; expensive but it runs beautifully. I’ve heard that Cox will be adding TiVo software to their DVRs, but I called and no one there actually has a time frame when that would be happening.

Another option would be to go with DirectTV and their DVR. I hear it is not much better than the Cable company one, but DirectTV ha announced they will be tripling their HD lineup this year. No such news form Cox. But, will it be worth the hassle of installing an antenna to get 3 times the HD content when most of it will probably be for shows that I don’t watch.

The final option that comes to mind would be to hold out and go with the IPTV through my Xbox 360 later this year. In theory this would be the best option because the DVR functionality looks great, there is no limit to the number of channels, and I don’t have to get a separate box to add to my entertainment center. In reality, I don’t really want to wait until this fall to get HD TV content, and I don’t think it will actually be offered in my area since I can’t even upgrade my DSL plan to anything faster then the basic one from AT&T. I guess I could always get digital cable for now and switch to IPTV when it comes out (if I can even get it in my area).

Since I don’t have an HDTV yet I guess I don’t have to decide how I want to get HD TV content, but when I do I have a feeling I’m not going to be happy no matter which choice I pick. It will either be very expensive and work great, or be “cheap” and work like a digital VCR. If you have a HDTV and an HD-DVR let me know which DVR you went with and how you like it. I could use any advice I can get.

Right off the bat I want to state that I think Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is off to a pretty good start. I want to mention that at the beginning because by then end of this post you may think I don’t like Xbox Live Arcade when in reality I just have three areas of complaint.

Problem #1: Slow Game Releases
Why are so few games being released? I do like that Microsoft made Wednesdays “Xbox Live Arcade Release Day,” but why do they just release one game. Or worse yet, an add-on pack for a game. By my count so far there have been 45 games released for Xbox Live Arcade. That is far less than one a week; especially when you factor in that 10 of the 45 were released when Xbox Live Arcade started. For the most part these games are selling well. They are easy to buy and the demos make it easy to see if you think they are worth picking up or not. So, I have a message for development companies please put some teams together and work on more Arcade games. Microsoft Certificate Team, I realize you have a difficult job, but please get arcade games released quicker. I don’t always have time to sit down and play a game for a few hours, but I can find 20 or 30 minutes about every day to play an arcade game.

Problem #2: The Pricing
I appreciate that the whole Arcade thing is pretty new and companies are still trying to figure out prices for their arcade releases, but it would be nice if they could work out some sort of standardization. Even if the price is higher than I personally want to pay, at least try to work out some standard pricing to charge for arcade games. For example, Assault Heroes and Heavy Weapon both cost 800 points. Yet, Assault Heroes takes much less time to beat (in my experience) and offers less game modes. I liked Assault Heroes, but it should cost less than Heavy Weapon. I’m not even going to discuss the pricing for Lumines Live because that was the worst Live Arcade release pricing plan they have had so far. I could probably write a whole post just on it alone. Please work out a standard pricing model and stop over charging your loyal customers for every little thing.

Problem #3: Retro Games
I don’t mind retro arcade games. For the most part, they bring back great memories, but retro games are like any other video game: once you haven’t played the game for a while you seldom go back to it. I can look at my own game library as an example. I have over 40 games for the original Xbox, but the only one I have played in the last year is Halo 2. Once a game has been completed it is time to move on to the next one. If the game has good multiplayer it might extend its life a little, but it too will get shelved for a new game in time. That is a major part of the reason why I have started renting more games and buying less, but that also is a rant for another day. If they want to continue to release so many retro games please start releasing original arcade games on the same day (see Complaint #1). So far, of the 45 Xbox Live Arcade games released 18 of them have been a retro release. That is 40% of the Arcade games. I’d really like to see that number drop to about 20%. One retro game a month is more than enough. If I wanted to play these old games I would pull my old systems out the closet.

I saw a list of 10 new game releases that were coming for Xbox Live Arcade a week or two back, and out of those 10 games I plan to check out at least 4 of them: Alien Hominid HD, Band of Bugs, Catan, and Luxor 2. Five of the ten are retro games or remakes or PC games. Why is it that only half of these games are new ideas? Maybe it is easier to port over an old game than it is to make a new one. Maybe developers are having trouble thinking up new game ideas that have not been done on the PC. I don’t know, but I wish it would stop. I have high hopes for the XNA developers out there. From what I’ve seen most of them are fresh and original ideas. I look forward to seeing some of these hit the Xbox Live Arcade so those of us who are not in the XNA program can check them out.

Xbox Live Arcade and XNA Developers take a look at Outpost Kaloki X. It is a good example for you to use when thinking about making/releasing an arcade game. It is an original game for a reasonable price. They also released 5 additional game modes, but only charge for two of them. Please, please take a look at this game because it does an excellent job of providing good value for the gamer.

As Xbox Live Arcade grows I think it will probably grow out of these three issues. However, here in its infancy, as it starts mature I hope Microsoft can take note of the issues and challenges that Xbox Live Arcade faces and push it to be a great source for fun games. The only other option I see is that Microsoft lets Xbox Live Arcade sink into a dumping pile for old game remakes and poorly designed mini-games. I don’t think that is what Microsoft and the Arcade Developers want so I have hope that these issues will be addressed as time progresses.

After my last comparison review I must be in that type of mind sent because I’ve got another one for you today. You may have noticed my blog was down most of last week. At that time I was using RegisterFly.com as my host and domain registrar. I had been with them for a few years and never had any real trouble. From time to time portions of their site would be under contraction, but nothing to drastic. That was until last week when I found one morning that my site was not up. I proceeded to call RegisterFly and wait on hold for 30 minutes only to be told I would have to open a support ticket on their web site. Their website clearly states they have web, phone, and email support. Apparently phone support is only for issues that are not really technical. I opened a support ticket and noticed about 4 hours later my site was back up. I finally received a response about 36 hours later that said my site was back up. At the time I was hoping it was just a random fluke and it would not be a big deal. I was annoyed with the whole situation, especially since their site says the reply to tickets within 24 hours, but since my site was up I ignored it. I should not have. It was a sign of things to come.

The next morning my site was down again. I opened a ticked and called support anyway. The customer service rep did assign my ticked to the “Advanced” team and told me they would respond to the ticket after I waited 40 minutes on hold to get to him. After 2 days without a response I called back in (again waiting over 30 minutes) and was told that the ticket was in the Hosting Group to be addressed.

At this point I was pretty upset so I started looking around for a new hosting company. I found that GoDaddy.com has a hosting plan that offered twice as much storage for about half the price so I called them to get a few questions answered about how long the transfer would take and if I could get my website uploaded to the hosting server before the transfer completed. I had a rep on the phone with me within 2 minutes of calling GoDaddy. He was very helpful and actually walked me through the transfer process and knew the answers to all my questions without having to look them up. The transfer could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 5 days depending on how fast my current registrar was to respond. It took them 2 days to send me the administrative email confirming I wanted to transfer my domain away from RegisterFly.com. Within 5 minutes of my response to that email GoDaddy completed the transfer.

At this point I called GoDaddy to confirm what DNS Nameserver I should use since I already had my website uploaded and now the domain had transferred. The customer service rep answered within a minute and knew the nameserver off the top of his head. Within 20 minutes after completing the transfer my site was back up and running.

Yesterday I finally received a response to my ticket on RegisterFly. This is 2 days after I quit using them as my host and registrar and 6 days after I opened the ticket. The entire response was less than 2 sentences. It said that their server #18 was down and that they were working on it. I’m glad I did not wait for them to fix it or you would not be reading this post right now.

I’m pretty impressed with GoDaddy’s response times. I had a question that I did not need answered immediately so I emailed it instead of calling. Their support site lists right on it how long it would be before I can expect a response email. The site said it would be two hours. It came in about 90 minutes and was very well written.

I called today to cancel my hosting with RegisterFly and they told me (once again) that I need to do this by opening a ticke on their website. I would do that but their website is down. I noticed this while on the phone with their customer service rep. He said they were aware that it is down and it should be back up in 45 to 50 minutes. Do the seriously expect people to trust them to use their hosting services when they can’t keep their own website up?

GoDaddy wins in this comparison hands down. They have a faster web site. They actually answer the phone and their support techs don’t speak with an accent so strong I continually have to ask them to repeat themselves. The best part is the cost less and guarantee 99.9% uptime.

The Battle For My Game Rental Dollar

Like my subtitle? I spent 40 minutes thinking that baby up 🙂
Anyway, back on topic, I’ve been using GameznFlix for almost a year now. For the last 8 or 9 months their shipping times have been very streaky. When I fist signed up they would ship me new games within a day or two of returning the previous one. However, on a couple occasions it has been 4 weeks between game shipments. When they do eventually get around to shipping me something it generally takes 4 or 5 days to get to me even though they ship from here in California.

I think part of the problem is that I signed up the same time as they started a big marketing campaign that added a lot of new customers. With all these new members they do not have enough copies of each game to go around. I will admit I generally only have 3 or 4 games in my queue and most of them are fairly new; so that probably does not help. Frankly, that is not really my problem. I’m paying for a service and I expect it to be provided. I really like the price, but now that my queue is getting pretty small I’m thinking of switching to GameFly even though it costs a bit more. I have 0 games out with GameznFlix right now, but nothing has been shipped to me in over 6 weeks.

I signed up for the 10 day free trial from GameFly on Sunday a couple weeks back and Monday they shipped me Lost Planet and Tony Hawk Project 8; both arrived in two days. Both games have been in my queue with GameznFlix since their release with a Short Wait status while I have zero games out. It seems like GameznFlix just doesn’t have enough copies of most games. So, I guess the question really comes down to “Am I really saving any money if it takes 3 or 4 times as long to get games from GameznFlix as it would from GameFly?”

I think the answer to that, at least for me, is No. What good is it to save 5 dollars a month if I never have any games to play?

So, I’m going to cancel my GameznFlix membership and continue with GameFly. In my experience GameFly has quicker shipping time frames and more of each game in stock. GameFly shipped me Lost Planet the day after it was released. Two weeks later GameznFlix still has not shipped it. GameFly also has a much nicer website/interface. It loads quicker, it lets me stay logged in between visits, and it has a very nice search feature. None of these things by themselves are really that noticeable, but when you see the difference as a whole it is really evident. Also, GameFly has partnered with the USPS so as soon as the Post Office scans a game you are returning GameFly is notified and begins the process of shipping you another game. This way you don’t have to wait as long between games. In my experience this cuts 2 to 3 days of the shipping times.

Finally, GameFly will let you invite your friends to join and then give them a discount on the monthly cost if they do. That is pretty nice. If you’re thinking of signing up with GameFly you can get the discount as well by using this link: GameFly Invite.

So, here is a quick breakdown of how this weighs out for me.
GameFly.com Benefits
* Wider selection of games
* Games ship out faster
* Better website design
* Better queue management

GameznFlix.com Benefits
* Lower monthly cost
* Rents movies as well (which I never used)

So, back to my previous question, saving 5 dollars a month is not helping me when I’m sitting at home with no games to play. When I pay for a service I want it to work for me. GameFly may cost a little more but it works for me and that makes it worth the price.

I’m headed out of town next week and I’m going to have some down time while I’m at the In-laws. So, I was thinking of taking my Xbox 360 with me, but if I’m going to fly with my Xbox 360 I’m going to need a good carrying case for my $400 toy. I started looking around for a decent carrying case and apparently there are really only two Xbox 360 carrying cases available. The first is a messenger bag that looks like it does not have very much padding. This would be ok for taking over to a friends house, but not for running through an airport and taking on a plane. The second is a hard metal case that I can’t imagine they will let me take through security. Even if they did, it would not be that fun to have it banging into my shins for the whole flight.

For my origional Xbox I had a nice carrying case that had firm sides. It had a panel on the bottom so you did not even have to take the Xbox out to use it. You just opened the panel and plugged the cables in while it was still in the case.

Why isn’t there a Xbox 360 case like this? My guess is that no one can figure out what to do with the 360’s Power Brick. I sure hope they figure it out soon because 2 weeks without any video games is going to suck. Especially since Crackdown comes out while I’m traveling.

If anyone knows of any other quality Xbox 360 carrying cases let me know. Thanks.